Of Children and Revenge
by Dark Fae Angel
Summary: Set one month after TDK. Joker's out of jail, Batman's the enemy and Jim Gordon's eldest Daughter has returned to Gotham to start an new life and help her familiy. Joker/OC, Bruce/OC I haven't decided yet.
1. Chapter 1

Batman was the enemy. Joker had escaped from Arkham. Gotham City had, once again, been thrown into chaos with no sign of hope to look for. Commissioner Jim Gordon often found himself wondering if now might be a good time to retire to Florida. Or maybe he'd request a transfer to California; his sister said high taxes were the only thing you really had to worry about out there. No Jokers, or Batmen, or psychotic psychiatrists. Gordon sat at his desk, feeling out of place in city hall, starring out the window as the sun set over the city. _What will you do tonight? Blow up more buildings, kill more innocents, or just keep us waiting in fear?_ The sound of his office door opening behind him drew him out of his melancholy.

"Nice digs. Not quite as cozy as Major Cases, but hey, what can ya do? Right, Popsicle?" A young woman stood leaning against the doorframe, a black duffle bag at her feet. She was short, only five feet five inches, and wore tattered black jeans, a tight black shirt that had the word 'riot' written across it in dripping red letters, and a black leather jacket.

"Chloe!" Jim rushed over and pulled the girl into a hug. "When did you get in? I thought you weren't coming back till next month. And what the hell did you do to your hair?"

Chloe held up a lock of her deep purple hair. "Aw come on Dad, I'm twenty-four. Legally I can do whatever I want to my body, hair included. Just be happy I didn't get the piercing. And I told you _last_ month I'd be in next month."

"I don't want to hear anything about any piercings. And last month was a very busy and stressful time for all of Gotham."

"Yeah, I know." Chloe walked over to the desk where some security camera stills of the Joker lay. She picked them up and looked at them. "You had to deal with the explosion loving clown boy. Funny I thought he'd be scarier."

"Those don't do him justice. You've got to meet him to grasp his insanity. So you've got place to stay?"

"Well I've got a place in the works but I was wondering if I could crash at your place till everything's finalized."

"Of course you can Chloe." Jim grabbed his coat and ushered them out of the office and out of the building. "But let's try to get home before it gets too dark. With that man back on the loose no one should be out after dark."

"Not even the ass kicking daughter of a cop?"

"Not when that dad happens to be the police commissioner." They headed to the parking garage and saw a fast looking street bike parked next to his car. "Please tell me that's not yours."

"Sorry pops, she's my baby." Chloe said tucking her hair into the collar of her jacket and zipping it up. "You still living at the old place?"

Jim nodded and Chloe smiled before slipping on her helmet, getting on her bike and heading out of the garage. Jim just shook his head, smiling softly, before getting in his own car and following her out. They were halfway home and in a meaner part of Gotham when he finally caught up to her. She noticed him and sped up more; buy the time he'd caught up to her again, she was waiting in his driveway with a smirk on her face. "What are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?"

"Jeeze Dad. I was just messing around; I'm really good on that bike. You don't have to worry."

"I'm always going to worry. I'm your dad."

"Dad-" She was cut off from a scream inside the house. They both rushed inside and searched the house to find Barbra in Jimmy's room trying to calm the young boy down. Chloe rushed to the bed and took the young boy from the older woman's arms. She stroked his hair and whispered 'It's okay' to the now crying child. He looked up at her with red eyes.

"Chloe?"

"Hey little Jay."

"Will you sing your song for me?"

"Sure baby." Jimmy leaned his head against her shoulder and snuggled into Chloe.

"Come little children I'll take thee away,

Into a land of enchantment.

Come little children, the time's come to play,

Here in my garden of magic."

She hummed a bit of the slow melody as Jimmy's eyes fluttered closed and he slipped back into sleep. Chloe tucked him in before leaving the room, Jim and Barbra in tow. The congregated in the kitchen sitting around the table in an almost uncomfortable silence. "I can't believe that still works on him."

"I think that song and your voice is his earliest memory, Chloe." Barbra said tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "He needs that comfort right now; it's good you've come back."

"How bad is he?"

"Well," Jim leaned forward on his elbows. "The doctors say he's traumatized, they both are but Jimmy-"

"Jimmy was the one that bastard held a gun to." Chloe spat venomously.

"Right. They say because of the trauma he sometimes reverts into a younger state, a safer state. Normally he's fine though; he's just regular old Jimmy. But when he has a nightmare or hears a noise like a gunshot, he's like that."

"Chloe," Chloe looked at the older woman, at the closest thing to a real mother she ever had. "I know it's hard enough for you to be back here in Gotham and I know seeing Jimmy like that makes it worse. But he needs you right now, I hear him calling out for you in his sleep; he's always run to you for comfort in the past. Please don't take off out of nowhere again."

"I'm not going anywhere Momma-B, not this time. I'm not running away anymore. It's been sixteen years and I'm so tired of running." She looked at her dad sheepishly. "That place I told you about, the one I might get. It's her old place. Our old place."

"You can't be serious! What are you trying to do, drive yourself insane?"

"Dad, I need to get over what happened. Being there will help. And even at that I might not even get the place anyway, there's a possibility those buildings are getting torn down soon."

"Chloe, listen to me," Jim pleaded, "It's not just the apartment, it's the whole area. It's unsafe, and now that that sick freak Joker is back it's even more dangerous for you. The moment he finds out who you are you'll be a target. We've already got people watching the house and the kids at school, I don't know if I can get somebody to watch you if your living in that neighborhood. I don't want any more of the people I love hurt."

"Alright fine, I'll call the guy tomorrow and tell him I'm not interested. But what am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to live? The only reason I was even seriously considering that place was because it was cheap, Gotham is an expensive city."

"You'll stay here until you have enough money for your own place." Barbra interjected in an 'end of story' voice. "And I'm sure Jim can ask around at work tomorrow if anyone needs or wants a purple haired secretary."

"Jeeze what is it with you people and the hair." The older two just shook their heads before leaving the kitchen; Chloe knew where the guest room was. "And I'm not dying it a normal color just so you know. I'm thinking maybe blue the next time it fades!"

Jim found himself thoroughly buried under paperwork all the next day. By three he was starving, having skipped breakfast that morning due to sleeping in, he called home and Barbra said she'd send Chloe down to the deli for something for him; so when he heard a knock on his door, he simply assumed it was her and shouted for the person to come in.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything Commissioner Gordon?" Jim was shocked to find Bruce Wayne, richest man in Gotham, standing in his door way.

"Mr. Wayne! No, not at all, in fact you're rescuing me from paperwork. Please have a seat." Jim gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "What can I do for you?"

"Well actually-"

"Dad you need a better receptionist. That girl's a total stuck up bitch!" Chloe stormed in without even knocking. She made it two feet into the room when she noticed Bruce and blushed. "I'm sorry Dad I didn't know you were busy. I can wait outside."

"No, stay. I won't be long." Bruce said waving her over. Chloe went to stand by her dad, holding the deli bag behind her back. "Commissioner, I was under the impression your daughter was about eight or so."

"You're thinking of my youngest Mr. Wayne. This is Chloe; she's from my first marriage."

"Well Chloe," Bruce stood up and shook her hand, "it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Bruce Wayne."

"I've read about you in magazines. And my dad told me about that accident with your Lamborghini. Maybe you should start watching the news more."

"You'll have to excuse my daughter Mr. Wayne; she tends to speak her mind."

"I don't mind at all, I find a free spirit very attractive. And call me Bruce."

"Well Bruce," Jim's voice was a little gruff, just because she was grown didn't mean he wanted to watch men flirt with his daughter, "what is it I can do for you?"

"Well actually it's something I want to do for you. I'm holding a charity ball this Saturday to support the victims of the Joker's attacks and their families, and I would love it if you, your wife and Chloe would come."

"We'd be honored." Jim said a little flabbergasted. After all, it's not every day you're invited to a party with some of the richest people in Gotham.

"Well I look forward to see you all there. Have a nice day." With that Bruce left and Chloe plunked the bag of sandwiches down on the desk in front of her dad.

"Screw getting a job as a secretary. I'll just marry him."

"Not funny Clo."

"I was just kidding. He's not my type anyway."

"Good." They ate in silence for a bit. "Although if you were to marry him I wouldn't have to worry about money for my retirement."

"Ha ha, very funny. I'm going to have to get a nice dress now aren't I?"

"Probably dye your hair too."

"I'll do the dress, but normalcy stays far away from my hair!" the two laughed, enjoying having the other back after so very long.

The week passed quickly. Jim found he did need a new receptionist and promptly replaced her with Chloe since he was the only one who didn't care about what she wore or what color her hair was that week. Chloe found that it was expected to wake up at least once a night to comfort Jimmy. Barbra began to notice a dark look in her stepdaughter's eyes after the small boy had fallen back asleep, and warned Jim; both of them remembering the kind of temper Chloe had. But Saturday soon came and Jimmy and Sarah were spending the night at their friends' houses while the three of them had some well deserved fun.

"I feel out of place."

"Well you do have hair that matches your dress." Barbra teased knowing it wasn't the real reason. She thought Chloe looked absolutely beautiful in her knee length lavender dress that did match the now-lighter hair that was pulled into a bun and decorated with jeweled combs. The jewels were sapphire that matched Chloe's eyes.

"Hardy har-har-har. You never get tired of teasing me do you?"

"It's my job. I'm just surprised you haven't fallen in those heels."

"I'm just surprised you haven't dragged Dad onto the dance floor." Chloe gave Barbra a little shove with her hips. Barbra loved to dance, but Jim wasn't so gifted. The two giggled and teased, watching the other couples dance around the dance floor. Bruce had rented the ball room in a historic building Chloe knew nothing about, but the place was beautiful. Like something out of a fairy tale. Jim was off talking with the mayor about the new DA, some little pushover who more than paled in comparison to the 'great' Harvey Dent. In the middle of a playful argument about the remake of some movie, Barbra nudged Chloe and pointed over her shoulder.

"Look who coming over!" Chloe turned to see Bruce smiling and walking towards her.

"Chloe, I was hoping to see you here."

"Well how could I turn down an invitation to a party like this?"

"And here I thought you came to see me."

"Maybe." Chloe felt a slight poking in her back and held back a small giggle. "Bruce this is my stepmom Barbra. Barbra this is Bruce Wayne."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Wayne."

"No," Bruce took her out stretched hand and kissed it. "The pleasure is mine. Do you mind if I borrow Chloe for a dance Mrs. Gordon?"

"Oh not at all. The girl needs to have some more fun and I need to find my husband. You two have fun." Barbra rushed off to drag Jim away from the Mayor for a few attempts at a dance while Bruce led Chloe to the dance floor. The music was classical to match the atmosphere so most were doing some form of a waltz or something of the like.

"So tell me Chloe, why is it, I haven't met you before?"

"I've been living in California for the past six years. I just got back on Monday."

"You grew up in Gotham though."

"Yeah. But I needed to get away for a bit and somewhere along the lines a bit turned into six years."

"So where's your mother?"

"She's dead." Chloe's voice was just above a whisper. "I don't like talking about her."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, you didn't know."

"How long are you in Gotham for?"

"To stay hopefully. I plan on trying to start a life here."

"So I can look forward to seeing you for a while then?"

"You must hold a lot of parties, because I don't think you and I live in the same social circle."

"Maybe I'll just find reasons to be in city hall more often."

"The press will begin to notice." Chloe laughed. "I can see it now '_Billionaire's secret tryst with rainbow haired receptionist.'_ They'll think you've lost your mind."

"I'm not afraid to break the mould, so I why shouldn't I like a woman who's not the same?"

Chloe opened her mouth to answer but screams cut her off. People were rushing away from the door and to the far side of the ball room. Bruce stepped in front of Chloe as the crowd parted to reveal the Joker surrounded by his usual masked goons. Joker's smile widened when he saw Bruce and headed over.

"Bruce Wayne." He stopped a few feet in front of them, acting like he was meeting an old friend. "Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, do you know how much it hurt me when I found out you were holding another shin dig and didn't invite me. I mean we had so much fun the last time."

"What do you want Joker?"

"I just want to have some fun." Joker held his hands up defensively.

"I know what your kind of fun is. What do you want Joker?"

"Well if you're going to be rude, a little birdie told me Commissioner Gordon would be here." Chloe's eyes widened slightly at the mention of her father. "And considering that back in the good old days he was always the one to go through to find Batman, I thought we'd have a little chat. If not," Joker shrugged, "well a little torture of the innocent has always known to bring the bat out to play."

Chloe saw her dad step out from the crowd behind Joker. "I haven't been in contact with Batman since he killed Dent and all those people, so you can just leave us be."

His words just made Joker break out into an insane bout of laughter. "You think Batman KILLED people! You pathetic SHEEP," Joker grabbed the nearest random person from the crowd. "I guess we'll just have to do this the fun way." He put a knife to the man's mouth.

"Leave him alone you sadistic bastard!" All eyes were on Chloe, after all, who'd be crazy enough to challenge Joker after what happened to Rachel. Joker just laughed, shoving the man back into the crowd and walk towards Chloe.

"You see Brucie, this is why I LOVE coming to your parties. You always seem to invite the spiciest women." He grabbed her, pulling her close and holding the knife to her face.

"Damn it Joker you let her go!" Jim shouted.

"I'm fine dad." Chloe said trying to think of a way to get out of Joker's grasp. Joker looked at Chloe and then Jim.

"Dad? Well now, my night just keeps getting more and more fun. And don't lie to him, you're not fine."

"Please Joker, just let her go. Just leave us alone." Bruce pleaded.

"Oh fine, Batboy's probably not going to show anyway." He sounded truly disappointed. "But before I go, I want one dance with Miss. Gordon here."

"Fine!" Chloe said before anyone could interject. "It's one dance, it couldn't hurt." Joker smirked waving one of his henchmen over and whispering something in the masked man's ear. 

The man ran off to the band and told them to play, they started up a tango but when no one started dancing one of the henchmen shot his gun into the air and soon everyone was on the dance floor. No one, however, came near Chloe and Joker. The pair started their dance and Chloe was shocked the painted man even knew the dance, let alone was so graceful.

"So tell me beautiful, you got a name?"

"Chloe. What about you? Do you have an actually name?"

"Joker will do just fine for now. Maybe when we get more," He pulled her tightly against him and rolled his hips against hers, "acquainted I'll give you something else to call me."

"Keep dreaming. Actually I take that back. I do _not_ want you dreaming about me."

"Aw come on Chloe. We look good together, we match and everything." Chloe groaned realizing they did in fact match in some way.

"Knew I should have gone with all black."

Joker shook his head. "I don't like all black, a little's okay, but _all_ black makes me think of the bat."

"All the more reason for a color change."

"Are you trying to make me angry?" Something sharp pressed into her side and Chloe realized there was a knife in the hand wrapped around her waist. Joker's voice was a deadly growl. "Don't think I won't kill you."

"I should kill you for what you did to my family. To my brother."

Joker threw his head back and laughed, causing the crowd to look at them again. "You think I did that?" His voice was low, but quick and excited. "Harvey Dent did that. Or if you want to believe what they do, Batman did that. I'm innocent there."

"We both know you pushed Dent to the breaking point. You tipped him over the edge. You killed Rachel Dawes."

"And what a shame that was. She was such a sweet and feisty little thing. Not quite as feisty as you though. She cringed when I came near her; I think it was the scars, but you. You didn't seem to care or notice."

"Compared to the things I've seen, you're nothing but a guy in a purple suit with clown makeup. You don't scare me."

"That can be changed." Joker spun her away from him and when he did, she quickly pulled the combs out of her hair and threw them with expertise at him. They weren't combs, but knives! They split into six separate small knives. Two missed, one slashed his palm, one buried in his thigh, one just grazed his side, and the last pinned one of his pant legs to the floor. The music stopped and the people around them stopped dancing. The Joker seemed unfazed by the blade in his thigh and just laughed. "You could have killed me! But you people and your rules. You can't do anything but hurt me, and I love the pain!"

"Enjoy this fucker!" Chloe punched him in the jaw. Instantly three henchmen with guns were on her. She began to fight them off, when one was shot dead. She turned to find Joker holding the gun.

"None of you touch her! I want this one alive."

"Yeah well he wants you dead!" Chloe shouted pointing behind her. Joker turned and was punched in the face again by Batman. People really began freaking out and started running for any exit they could find. In the confusion, Joker and most of his henchmen got away and by the time the police got inside, so had Batman. Chloe was checked over y paramedics, berated by her parents for attacking Joker, and questioned by detectives. She finally got a moment to herself when Jim had to go talk to his detectives.

"Hey."

Chloe jumped and looked up to find Bruce holding out a cup of coffee. "What happened to you?"

"Got shoved out by the crowd and then hounded by the cops. You okay?"

"I've been worse."

"So Joker's got a thing for you apparently. You worried?"

"More about my family than myself. Tell me Bruce," She looked at him with a wild light in her eyes. "Are your parties always this crazy?"

"Only lately."


	2. Chapter 2

"Chloe, phone!" Chloe walked over to Sarah and held her hand out for the phone. She ruffled the small girl's hair.

"Go wash up for dinner Sarah." Sarah nodded and bounded down the hall to the bathroom. "Hello?"

"Chloe? It's Bruce."

"Hey! I thought you said you we're going to stop by the office and see me?" It had been two, long and interesting weeks since the party.

"Well apparently even being a billionaire who owns his own company doesn't give me the right to skip meetings."

"You mean the meetings you sleep through?"

"How did you-"

"Those kids who work for the bike messenger service gossip more than you think."

Bruce laughed on the other line. "So do receptionists it seems. Anyways, I was wondering if you'd come to dinner with me tomorrow?"

"I don't know Bruce. The last time we did anything together I wound up with a homicidal admirer."

"I'm sorry about that, I really am. You haven't seen him since though, have you?"

"Well no, but-"

"But?"

"Did you know there's a floral shop in Gotham that has purple roses?"

"He sent you roses?"

"He keeps sending them. The house is so full of them I'm thinking of getting a wood chipper to disintegrate them. I'd burn them, but he'd probably get a kick out of that."

"Probably. You seem to be taking holding the interest of the Clown Prince of Gotham really well."

"Mass amounts of flowers are nothing. When I was going to school in California, I partnered up with this loner for a class project and somehow by then end of the semester he thought we were dating. Long story short, he liked to send me dead cats as gifts. Compared to that Joker's turning out to be quite the gentleman."

"So you openly admit you attract psychotic men?!"

"Are you admitting something about yourself Bruce?"

"Eccentric maybe, psychotic definitely not. But what about dinner tomorrow?"

"I'm not so good at fancy. I mean I wore knives in my hair to a charity ball."

"Yeah what was with that by the way?"

"My dad's the Police Commissioner in a city known for violent and insane criminals. And I tend to be paranoid."

"It's Gotham; if you're not paranoid you're crazy. Alright so nothing fancy, what do you want to do then?"

"Know any good clubs?"

The next night Chloe found herself in a mad panic to get ready for her date. She'd woken up late, got to work late, left work late, and then had to break up a very volatile fight between Sarah and Jimmy. Apparently Jimmy had stolen one of Sarah's Barbie dolls and melted half of its face off with a lighter. How the hell the ten year old got a hold of a lighter, Chloe couldn't figure out but by the time she finished changing and started on her makeup, both kids were in their rooms crying. Sarah, because of the destruction of her doll, and Jimmy for the rather loud lecture Chloe had given him. Chloe finished her makeup and left the bathroom, Barbra was waiting for her in the living room, looking far older than she was. The brunette looked over her stepdaughter. Chloe was wearing a red plaid skirt, thigh high fishnets, black boots, and a red and black corset-like top. Her makeup was less dramatic than the clothes, nice neutral tones on her lips and eyes. She stood from the arm of the couch where she had been resting and accidentally knocked one of the _many_ vases of purple roses to the floor.

"Shit!" She bent to start picking up the pieces of shattered glass when Chloe stopped her, cleaning it up herself. "You don't have to do that; you should be waiting for Bruce."

"Yes I do. It's my fault we're being bombarded buy these. At least he bought the vases."

"Yes and when the roses dies we're going to shatter each one."

"Can we paint clown faces on them first?" Chloe looked up into Barbra's eyes. "I hate him so much for what he's done to you."

"To us. Chloe," Barbra pulled her up by her forearms, "I can see you suffering as much as the rest of us. You can try to hide it behind all the sarcasm and smiles, but you are just as worried as I am."

"Why did it have to be the kids? What did they ever do?"

"Don't think about it Chloe." Barbra pulled her into a hug. "You go out and have fun tonight. You forget about everything that's happened and is happening. I mean, come on, you're going out on a date with Gotham's most eligible bachelor, every other girl in Gotham would kill to be you right now. And you look beautiful, if just a little gothic."

"I like to turn heads." There was a knock on the door. "That's him, I've got to go. I'll try not to be out too late."

"Have fun Chloe." Chloe kissed Barbra on the cheek before opening the front door to find Bruce starring at her. She giggled slightly bringing him back to reality.

"Chloe, you look great." He stood back to let her walk past him and together they walked to the waiting car.

"You don't look too bad yourself. It's nice to see you in something other than a suit." Brue was dressed in a simple pair of loose fitting jeans and a black t-shirt. The club they were going to was just that, a club. Nothing fancy, no high class socialites, just loud music, dancing and booze. Chloe looked towards the street to find a black Lamborghini waiting for them. "How many of these do you own?"

"Well, three now." Bruce held open the passenger door for her and Chloe slid in with the expertise of someone who was used to getting into low cars with short skirts. No crotch flashing for her! Bruce closed the door and got in on the driver's side.

"You really have no clue what to do with your money do you?"

"Aren't the rich supposed to have multiple fasts and expensive cars?"

"Only if they're self obsessed show offs."

"Ow, I'm hurt." They pulled away from the house and immediately started breaking the speed limit getting across the city. "I like the new hair color by the way."

Chloe held a lock of now blood red hair in front of her face like she was looking for split ends. "You didn't expect me to keep the purple did you? I'm really beginning to hate that color."

"Aren't we all. So nothing other than the flowers?"

"Nadda. Not even a threatening love note at work."

"Threatening love note?!" Bruce half laughed as they barely made it through a yellow light.

"You're going to get us killed you show off! But you know; a love note with little threats thrown in. Stalkers love them. You'd think Joker'd want to keep me on my toes or something."

"Okay how about this; tonight, no more Joker, no being the daughter of a police commissioner, no being the richest guy in Gotham. Just you and me, dancing and having a good time as regular people."

"Deal. Now will you slow the fuck down!?"

"No need," Bruce said pulling into a parking garage, "we're here. The club's just right across the street." They exited the garage and headed to where a long line of people were waiting outside and otherwise, unimportant looking building. Bruce grabbed Chloe and pulled her to the front of the like where the bouncer just let them in, accompanied by the complaints of the would-be patrons.

"I thought you said we were going to be regular."

"We would have been waiting out there all night." Chloe laughed at Bruce before dragging him onto the dance floor. The songs were long and mostly nameless techno beats she'd never heard before, but they danced for what felt like hours when Chloe finally allowed Bruce to drag her over to a table. "I'm going to go get us some drinks. What do you want?"

"Something with vodka!" Bruce laughed before walking towards the bar, leaving Chloe tapping her feet along to the music. She watched the other dancers, keeping her eye on a kid who thought he was a great dancer but was in grave danger of getting punched by the guy next to him. She laughed at the poor kid, feeling a drink being pressing into her hand. "Hey Bruce, check out this kid-You!" She'd turned to find Joker sitting across from her; the strobe lights from the club making his painted face seem more like a twisted skull than ever. Behind him two of his thugs held a struggling Bruce by his arms.

"Chloe," Joker shook his head in mock sadness. "Here I thought there was something between us, something special, and I find you out on a date with Bruce Wayne. I'm crushed."

"I hope you die of heartache you freak!"

"Now you see, there's that irrational anger towards me. We've discussed this, what Harvey Dent did was of his own control, I had nothing to do with what happened to little Jimmy."

"Don't you fucking mention him clown! You've caused all of this with your stupid games."

"You know what I think," He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I think the reason you hate me, the reason you can't stand to be within a few feet of me has nothing to do with what happened to your brother or your family or any of that. You hate me, because you see yourself in me. You see the parts of yourself you've tried to crush down, tried to hide, personified in me."

"And what gives you that idea?" It almost stunned Joker how quickly she switched from livid to an almost bored state. Chloe cradled the small glass of alcohol in her hands, titling her head to the side, challenging Joker with her eyes.

"Well after our lovely little dance, you left me wondering. Wonder what could make a normal girl bring knives to a peaceful little party. What could leave someone with the ability to be faced with death and not even cringe. Add the fact that few people even know who you are and less knew Gordon had an older daughter. So I did some digging and found some rather interesting police files about your mother's death." He slid a picture of a beautiful, model-like, young blonde woman. It was a headshot that used to sit by her bed when she was a little girl. "Sadly someone seems to have erased all the details of the file, just that she was dead and you were there. Care to fill in the blanks?"

Chloe traced her mother's mouth with a finger. "She died. I was there. End of story. You and I are nothing alike Joker. You hurt people, you hurt children. I just want to hurt you."

Joker pulled out a pocket watch. "Well, look at that. It's almost one. Isn't that about the time Jimmy wakes up every night? Poor little guy, he's going to feel so bad when no one comes to comfort him."

"What do you…." Chloe's eyes widened and she lunged across the table, grabbing his jacket. "Where the fuck is Jimmy?!"

"Now what gives you the idea I've got him. I mean your dad _is_ the Commissioner, it could have been the mob."

"Could have been but wasn't. Give me Jimmy."

"What, no 'what did you do to my parents?' or 'are my parents okay?' Maybe you should be asking what I had to do to get little Jimmy out of your house. What happened to Barbra."

"Fine, I'll play. What did you do to Barbra?"

"Oh, nothing. Just knocked her unconscious. She put up a good fight too; one could almost believe you two were actually mother and daughter."

"Now where's Jimmy?"

"Well, here's the thing. You're a smart girl, we both know that. And we both know I'm also not going to give him up for free. Maybe we could work out a trade."

"Fine, you can keep me but you have to give Jimmy back to my parents unharmed and alive."

"Chloe, don't do this!" Bruce yelled from behind Joker only to have a gun smacked against the back of his head.

"So what about it Joker? You want to trade or not?"

They left Bruce at the club, unconscious but alive. Chloe expected to be shoved into an unmarked van but was visibly shocked to find an expensive looking car waiting for them outback. The drive wasn't long but to Chloe it was an eternity. They stopped in front of a warehouse near the docks and Chloe almost laughed, it was almost predicable. What wasn't predicted was the inside of the warehouse was actually a fully furnished split level house. For a man of simple tastes, Joker couldn't live too simply; it seemed he burned less of the mob money than people were led to believe. Chloe sent him a look and he just shrugged and led her up the stairs. They were halfway up when the screaming started. Forgetting where she was, forgetting who she was with, Chloe ran the rest of the way up the stairs following the screams to a small room where she found Jimmy sitting in a bed. Chloe ran to him and immediately started to try to calm him down.

"Shhhhh Jimmy. It's okay nothing's going to hurt you. It's okay baby."

"Chloe?"

"That's right Jay, it's Chloe."

"I had a dream that.." He stopped and stared over Chloe's shoulder. Chloe turned to see Joker standing in the doorway with that annoying smirk of his. "It wasn't a dream."

"Don't worry Jay. You're going to go home and everything's going to be alright. He promised you were going to go home."

"What about you Chloe?"

"I have to stay here Jay. It's only going to be for a while."

"Forever is more like it." Chloe glared at him again before turning back to Jimmy.

"Jimmy you remember that time when you were four when Momma-B and Dad grounded me for a month for taking that guy's car?" Jimmy nodded. "You remember what I did?" Chloe hugged her brother tight whispering in his ear. "When I say run, you head down the stairs and out the door. I'll be right behind you."

She felt Jimmy nod and whipped around, throwing the knife she'd hidden in her boot at Joker. It pinned his arm to the wall, cutting through a nice bit of skin just below his elbow, and before he had time to react she shouted for Jimmy to run, pushing him towards the door and taking off after him. By the time they made it downstairs and passed the stunned henchmen, Joker had pulled himself free and was yelling for the henchmen to go after them. By some stroke of luck, the car was still unlocked and the stupid ass driver even left the keys! _Someone's going to die for this._ Chloe thought shoving Jimmy into the back and telling him to 'get down and stay down.' She gunned the engine and just made it to the turn when the shots started coming; Jimmy whimpered in the backseat and Chloe just drove faster, want nothing more to get back home and to her parents. But the Joker had already let her know that home wasn't safe anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

If there was a hell on Earth, Jim Gordon thought his life was it. Barbra and Sarah were hysterical, jumping at every shadow, convinced Joker was back. Jimmy had gotten worse, not letting Chloe out of his sight and screaming when she was. Their house wasn't safe anymore. Nothing was safe. So when Bruce showed up at his office offering to move his family, permanently, into a high security, fully decorated penthouse apartment free of charge he nearly jumped for joy. "If you guys want, I can have you moved in before sunset today."

"That would be wonderful Mr. Wayne. But there's something I want to ask you."

"Yes?"

"Are you doing this for my family, or for Chloe?"

"Aren't they the same?" Jim glared at Bruce. "Commissioner, in all honesty I feel responsible for this mess. If I hadn't invited Chloe to the party or to the club she wouldn't be Joker's newest target."

"Trust me, the way she is, it would have happened eventually. There's one other thing Bruce, Chloe said she and Joker talked at the club, but she won't say what about. Do you know?"

"He said they were alike. He wanted to know about her mother. I don't know much about Chloe, but I know enough about her to know when someone's pushing her buttons-"

"Chloe's had a very, very troubled past. But I can't tell you more, if she wants you to know she'll let you."

"Fair enough. Now when would you like to move into that apartment?"

The apartment was huge to say the least, definitely bigger than their old place. Bruce had even made to so that Chloe and Jimmy's room had a connecting door. Barbra was ecstatic over the high security and the safety of the neighborhood. Sarah was happy to have a full on pink princess room. Jimmy wouldn't stop telling Chloe over and over about all the cool comic book stuff in his room. Chloe laughed at the boy before tickling him on the floor of their new living room, Sarah soon joining in and the two children quickly overpowering the young woman. Jim smiled to see his family resembling normal once again. There was a flash behind him and he turned to see Barbra holding a camera. He laughed and went to go answer the knock at the door. "Bruce! You should have been here earlier, Sarah and Jimmy just tickled Chloe to death."

"Damn, wish I could have seen that. Me and Alfred brought dinner though." Jim ushered the two men in and they returned to the living room to find Chloe still being tickled by the children. Chloe noticed Bruce and blushed, pushing the kids off of her and standing up, straightening out her clothes before hugging Bruce. "Chloe, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah sure Bruce." She grabbed his hand and led him to Jim's new study, noticing jimmy's small form following them. She stopped outside the door and knelt so she was at Jimmy's eye level. "Jay, Bruce and I have to talk for a bit, I'll be right inside this room, do you think you can wait out here for us?"

Jimmy looked up at her with watery grey eyes but nodded, sitting down in front of the door way. Chloe smiled sadly at him before showing Bruce in a closing the door. "So what's up?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine. I'm pissed off beyond all belief and am damn close to showing that fucking clown what it's like to have a homicidal maniac chasing _his _all over Gotham."

"You let Batman deal with that."

"Like dealt with him before? Fuck Bruce, Batman can't and won't kill. You can't lock Joker up, he's proven that. He's always three steps ahead of us. Joker needs to die and Batman's not going to do it."

"Chloe you're just stressed right now-"

"Damn fucking right I'm stressed! Dad wants to send me Jimmy and Sarah out to California to live with our Aunt but Barbra won't split up the family. Jimmy won't let me out of his sight, I can barely take a piss by myself half the time. Sarah goes into screaming fits anytime she sees something that remotely resembles a clown. Barbra's ask me and Dad to teach her how to shoot and to get a gun for the house. My family is a step away from shambles and it's all thanks to him."

"And what about you?"

"Me! God what about me. This is all my fault. Sometimes…" Chloe leaned back against the door, looking down at the floor, not daring to meet Bruce's eyes. "Sometimes I just want to let him have me. Just give in so my family can have some peace. They wanted me here to help make things better but I've only made them worse. I'm destroying them."

"No you're not." Bruce said softly wrapping his arms around her. "He's destroying them."

"Because of me. If he'd never met me, he might have threatened, but never would have done this."

"But do you really think handing yourself over to him would help anything? It wouldn't stop his killings or even stop him from tormenting your family. He'd use you against them, break them even more."

"Don't you think I know that! I know it would change nothing, but I'll do anything to protect the people I love. Even if it mean condemning myself to hell."

"He got to you at the club, didn't he?" Bruce let her go and stepped back. "What was it, asking about your mother or saying you two were alike?"

"What does it matter?"

"Chloe I want to help you, but I can't if you leave me in the dark." _So this is how it feels._

"Bruce if you want to stay in my life you're going to drop this now." Bruce looked into Chloe's cold hard stare and knew it was a lost cause.

"Alright fine. But I want you to know that I'm here for you if you need anything. And please call me before you do anything stupid."

"You mean like hand myself over to clown-boy?"

"Why do you call him that?"

"I know he doesn't like it."

Bruce laughed and the two left the study feeling surprisingly better than they had before. The instant the door was open Jimmy had attached himself to Chloe's side, glaring at Bruce which had only made the two adults laugh. They joined the others for dinner and between Jimmy and Sarah's petty argument and Alfred's embarrassing stories of Bruce's childhood, they felt like a 

real family together. "So now that you all know about every one of my indiscretions," Bruce said as they tucked away a dessert of strawberries and cream, "what about you Chloe? Any embarrassing stories about you?"

A look passed between Jim and Barbra but Chloe just smiled, a devious glint in her eye. "You remember about eight years ago when the science wing at Lower Gotham High burned down?"

"Are you saying you did that?"

"Well it was actually an accident. I wanted to just cause some fire damage to my teacher's classroom, but it got out of hand."

"And why did you want to damage his classroom?"

"'Cause he was a Nazi." Chloe said simply, shrugging it off.

"You are crazy Chloe."

"Yeah but that's why you love me."

Life for the Gordon family slowly began to turn back to normal after that. Jimmy still couldn't sleep through the night, but had at least stopped clinging to Chloe throughout the whole day and had returned back to school with Sarah. Their ride to school may have a police escort now, but it made everybody feel a little better. Jim and Chloe were back to spending their days at city hall and all too quickly the monotony being under constant surveillance started getting to Chloe. She was allowed to go to work, the store, and Bruce's penthouse for the occasional dinner, they didn't like going out anymore, that was it. Every other waking moment she had was spent at 

home with Barbra and the kids, cleaning, cooking, and breaking up fights. She loved them to death but she needed a break! _Fuck, you'd think being stalked by a deranged, bomb loving, homicidal maniac would be more exciting._ Chloe thought one night lying on her bed staring out her window at the lights of Gotham. It was somewhere between two and three in the morning and Jimmy had already woken up and gone back to sleep, so she had nothing to do. Absolutely nothing. She could sleep, but for some reason she felt wired. _I don't remember having an energy drink recently, maybe this is Joker's latest plane. To torture me with insomnia._ The idea of sneaking out for a walk was looking more than appealing right now. It wouldn't be too hard, the night security guard normally took a nap right about this time. _Why do you even know that? What does it matter, that guy's sound asleep right now. I could slip right by him and-_Chloe stopped, she gotten off her bed and started pulling on clothes, _no. That's what he wants. He wants me to feel safe again. He wants me to be careless._ Chloe slipped back into bed and stared out the window again, but this time she noticed something. Across the street from their building was one of the entrances to Gotham's version of Central Park, and standing by the gate that was never locked, half hidden in shadows was a figure with a face white as a skull. _See, with him you can never let your guard down._ Chloe debated on opening the window and throwing something at him but decided that sleeping sounded so much better.

The next day found Jim Gordon at his desk playing telephone tag with every police station in the city. He was trying to see if any of them had any inkling as to what Joker might be up to. If there were any strange robberies, or anything slightly unusual going on. The whole city was anxious, Joker had been too quiet lately; everybody was just waiting for the explosions to start. Like the chaos brought on by Joker had become normalcy for Gotham. Jim didn't like it, the mayor didn't like it. Hell even the mob didn't like it! So he was almost relieved when he received a text 

message on his cell from an anonymous caller that simply said: TURN ON YOUR TV. Jim immediately switched on the small television he'd put in the office knowing how much Joker loved his air time. It was another one of Joker's videos, not really a surprise, but what was strange was it was just him, no hostages or anything. Just Joker talking.

"Good morning Gotham, I know you've all missed our little games so I've got a new one for us. If Chloe Gordon," He held up a candid picture of Chloe, "isn't at 250 52nd Street by noon today I will blow up one of Gotham's many elementary schools. She must be alive and relatively unharmed. Oh and Chloe, if you show and decide to pull another one of your lovely escaping acts, I will blow up not one, but three schools. If any of the police try to stop her than any school, day care, orphanage, and playground could become a lovely crater."

The video cut off and Jim glanced at the clock, it was 11:45. He dashed out of his office and saw that Chloe was already gone. He ran out of the building and towards where he knew she parked her bike, calling for back up from his old unit. Chloe, however was already gone. Foregoing even putting on her helmet, she darted through traffic at deadly speeds, ran through stop signs and red lights and did everything she could to get halfway across town in less than fifteen minutes. In there was a back of her mind there was a little voice telling her how funny it's be if a school got blown up because she got killed on the ride over, but she squashed it down and pushed the bike harder. Her eyes were watering from the wind, her blue hair stung her face when it whipped her cheeks and she swore a bug just flew up her nose, but she just kept going and after what seemed like an eternity she was there. The building was that same as it was when Dent tried to kill her family here, destroyed, demolished, and slightly scented with gasoline. And yet somehow there were still walls and a second story. She'd never been there but had heard Jimmy screaming about it enough times to know where to go. Chloe headed up to the second level, not seeing Joker but 

knowing her was there. "This is where you killed Rachel." She spoke knowing he was listening. Her voice was calm, but sad. "This is where the dirty cops took her, like you planned, and told her that her friends were going to decide who lived or died. And then you lied to them, knowing Batman would go after Rachel, you switched the addresses so Rachel would burn and Dent would suffer."

Joker appeared from behind a pillar, a few of his henchmen with him. Chloe saw but kept on talking. "And then you sent a halve crazed, grief ridden, half burnt Dent, hell bent on revenge, out into the city to punish those responsible for Rachel's death. He should have killed you first but somehow you escaped his bullets. And so he brought my family here, so my dad could watch as Dent killed Jimmy. But he didn't. Batman killed Dent."

"Batman doesn't kill."

"I think it was inadvertently."

"Why are you telling me this? I don't need to be told things I already know."

"You said my anger towards you was irrational. But it's not. If you hadn't of killed Rachel, I would only hate you as much as every other citizen in Gotham. I wouldn't want to kill you."

"Is that what you came here to do? Kill me?" Joker started circling her. Chloe just stood there, staring straight ahead.

"No. I want to kill you, but I don't think I actually could. Maybe if I were younger, but now. Now I could never kill somebody."

"So you're turning yourself over to me. Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"And no running away. I'd so hate for those little kiddies to burn."

He was in front of her again, that smirk plastered on his face. She looked at him with tired eyes. "I came to Gotham to stop running, but all I've been doing since I got here is running from you. I'm so tired of running, it only causes problems." At that moment his smile almost seemed like sincere happiness. Like he was actually human. Then Chloe felt something hit the back of her head and plunged into darkness.

She knew he was there. She knew he was there and she didn't care one bit. She'd woken on a cold cement floor facing a wall. She could hear Joker breathing behind her but didn't feel like looking at him. Chloe knew he was getting impatient, she knew she was just making him mad, but none of it seemed important. He was tapping his foot on the ground, letting her know that he knew she was awake. He wanted her to scream, to cry, to beg, and to plead. And she wouldn't even look at him. She heard his footsteps come towards her and when he was right behind her…

"Come little children I'll take thee away,

Into a land of enchantment.

Come little children the time's come to play,

Here in my garden of magic."

Her voice was quiet and cracking slightly. Joker stood behind her, stunned. "What are you doing?"

"Come little children the time's drawing near,

Halloween night is waning."

"Stop it!" He kicked her in the side. She was supposed to be cowering! "Stop singing!"

"Come little children ride with me tonight,

Tonight's not a night for abstaining."

He grabbed her dragging her up and slamming her into the wall. Her head bounced with a sickening thud and he slapped her across the face. "I said stop!"

"Come little children now follow me home,

Not a one of you need worry."

It was a punch to the face this time, followed by two more to the gut. The air rushed out of her lungs and she was slammed back again. She gathered what breath she could and sang louder.

"Come little children the time's come to roam,

Come follow me now, please hurry."

"I said stop it you stupid bitch!" He just kept hitting her and hitting her. Chloe's voice waivered with the blows but never stopped.

"Come little children there's magic to see,

Here in my garden of mystery.

Come little children into my abode,"

His hands wrapped around her throat, cutting off her air and stopping her singing. She finally looked at him, looked into his eyes. She saw rage and confusion. Joker saw nothing in hers just blank pools of blue. It wasn't the Chloe he knew and wanted to torment. He shook her again. "See that wasn't so hard. When you listen to me, good things will happen. But when you don't, I have to hurt this pretty little face of yours."

Chloe gathered what little dying strength she had and spit blood in his face. Joker slapped her again and threw her to the floor with a growl. Chloe gasped for air and slowly sat herself up, spitting out more blood. Joker turned and started to leave. Just as he was about to close the door behind him she started up again.

"Tomorrow you all will be history." He whipped back around to see her smiling at him, the bruises already forming on her face and blood dribbling down her chin. He turned back around and slammed the door shut. He slammed it shut on her laughter.


	4. Chapter 4

How long had it been since he'd beaten her? How long had it been since she passed out praying she wouldn't slip into a coma? Her stomach growled, _how long has it been since I've eaten?_ Chloe had woken up in the same bare room and waited. And waited. And waited. But nothing ever happened. Joker never came back. One of the henchmen, a man who liked to mumble to himself and had shaved off half of his hair, would bring her a small glass of water every so often, but no food. There was never any food. _**Food is for good girls.**__ Oh, shut up you. Great I'm arguing with myself again. Maybe that's what he wants, to drive me insane. __** Did you forget what happened?! You are insane.**_ Chloe sighed trying to quiet her wandering mind and going back to trying to figure out how long she'd been there. She'd finally gotten to the point where she could stand without getting massively dizzy, but still wanted to sleep more than anything. The pain she could handle, the hunger she could deal with, it was the boredom that was killing her. _ Shouldn't he be in here torturing me, or annoying me or something? __**So now you WANT to see him?**__ No, I'm just bored. Am I not allowed to be bored? __**Crazy. **__Go away._ Chloe slammed her head back to emphasize her point which only caused a blinding pain and little sparks to dance in her vision. "Okay that was stupid."

"You seem to do a lot of stupid things." Chloe looked to see Joker standing in the door way.

"Gee and here I thought you were going to make me die of boredom."

"There's no fun in that for me. Besides, who ever said I wanted you to die?"

"What do you want from me, Joker?" Chloe sat against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest. She buried her face in her arms in an attempt to fight the growing headache hitting the wall was giving her.

"Oh, many things. But for now I'll settle for your participation."

"In?" Joker snapped his fingers and the henchman with the bad hairdo came in with a video camera and a few sheets of paper. "Great, who are threatening? The whole city or just my family?"

"Why the whole city of course. It's more fun that way."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well I have no problem with not feeding you for another four days; I don't know how you'll be able to handle it-"

"Fine I'll do the damn video!" The henchman handed her the papers and Joker the camera before scurrying out of the room as fast as he could.

"And action."

Chloe bit her lip to keep from saying something that would definitely leave her with more bruises and no food. She picked up the first page and started reading, not daring to look into the camera. "It seems that despite the sacrifice of the lovely Miss. Gordon, my message still hasn't gotten across to you people. If you think the suffering of one little girl will state me you're severely wrong. To prove my point I've set up another one of my games that I know you all love. I've place bombs in various buildings all over the city, if the mayor isn't dead by midnight tonight…"

"Read it…read it, read it….READ IT!"

"Then each and every one of these buildings will be blown to smithereens. You've chased away your Great Protector, Gotham, who will save you now." Joker shut off the camera and the 

henchman returned to take the stud. After he left, Joker pulled a green apple out of his coat pocket and tossed it to Chloe. She turned it over in her hands, inspecting it.

"What are you looking for, poison?'

"Knowing you there's a razor blade inside it." She took a small bite staring at him. "You really don't care if he dies or not do you?"

"If I didn't want him dead, why would I go through all of this?"

"Well for one, you think its fun to watch them panic."

"Oh, always."

"And regardless of whether he dies or you blow up half of Gotham, you've proven your point. They will try to kill him, they will prove that this whole city is under your control more than it is the mayor's, the cops', or even the mobs. It's not about who lives or dies, it's just about throwing us into chaos and you getting your kicks out of it in the process."

Joker grinned at her and leaned back against the door. "You've got me all figured out don't you?"

"Hell-fucking-no. If I did, I wouldn't be wondering why I'm still alive."

"Do you want me to kill you Chloe?"

"No! I just want you to stop hurting my family."

"Oh, Chloe. You see even if you were dead. Even if you had never decided to come back to Gotham, I would still be playing my little games with your family. Remember, daddy dearest is the police commissioner and one of Batman's little friends."

"So I'm here so you can get at my dad and Batman?"

"No, you're here because you're fun. Bye!" He slammed the door behind him and Chloe heard the locks click into place. She finished up the apple, eating every part of it the core and all, and lay back down on the cold cement floor. She'd left the office in only jeans and a tee shirt, not even grabbing her jacket before racing off to meet Joker. The room was freezing and her thin clothing held little warmth for her. The one light she had was switched off, the switch was probably on the wall outside the room, and Chloe was left to her thoughts in the darkness, eventually slipping into another fitful bout of sleep.

She woke some time later still in darkness, nothing uncommon. Chloe figured she spent most of the day in darkness, the light only switched on when Mumbles came to give her a drink or when Joker came to visit. _**I wonder how the mayoral hunt is going. **__Oh my God, did you actually just say that? You want to know whether or not innocent people are trying to kill and innocent man?__** Well if their trying to kill him they can't be all that innocent can they?**_The sudden return of light interrupted her inner turmoil and forced her to cover her eyes in pain. She heard the door slam open and something hit her shins. Blinking rapidly, she looked down at her feet to see the disembodied head of Gotham's mayor starring back up at her, his mouth stuck in a twisted scream. She backed away on her hands and knees screaming, hearing Joker's insane laughter matching her screams. Chloe saw him standing in the doorway, holding a blood stained sack. He walked over, grabbing the head, and bent down in front of her, shoving the dead face into hers.

"What's wrong? Don't you like your present?" His voice was full of mock concern and Chloe could hear the giggles being held back. She squeezed her eyes shut turning her head away and 

whimpering. "Look what they did just so more wouldn't have to suffer like you. You should be so proud."

"I hate you!" Chloe screamed in his face, shoving Joker back and standing up on shaky legs. "I hate you, you pathetic excuse for a human being."

"Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?" Joker regained his balance and even with the slight hunch he always had seemed to tower above her.

"Just shut up you stupid clown! You stupid freak! Bruce said you told Rachel you gave yourself those scars to cheer up some wife, bull shit. You gave them to yourself because you wanted your outside to match how ugly, twisted, and depraved you were on the inside. What, does giving people some sob story make you feel better about knowing how much of a freak you are?"

Joker pinned her up against the wall by her neck, not choking her but keeping a tight hold. "I thought," His voice was a low, deadly growl, "you learned your lesson the last time that mouth of yours got you into trouble."

"You won't kill me. You can't."

"Just because I haven't yet doesn't mean I won't."

"So do it then! I'm not afraid of death."

"You really do want to die don't you?"

"What does it matter to you if I die or not? I'm just another pawn, just another wasted life in this game of yours. I'm not dumb enough to even begin to think I'm special to you, that I matter. Eventually you'll get bored and kill me. It's the fucking waiting that's the torture!"

"And here you say we're nothing alike. But you're right, you don't matter. You're not special, you're just entertaining. See like right now, right now most people would be trying to do anything to get me to let them leave. And you, you try to goad me into killing you! You really are just too much fun!"

"Then you'll love this!" Chloe kicked him in the groin and was dropped to the ground. _Even masochists hate getting kicked in the balls_. She darted for the door and shoved past the ineffective Mumbles. Powered by adrenaline she took off the darkened hall and headed up a staircase only to find herself in an equally dark hallway with the sounds of a beyond pissed off Joker closing in on her. She groped along the hall till she found a door way; praying it was empty, she flung open the door and darted in, shutting it silently behind her. _Oh, of course!_ Chloe had managed to trap herself in the last place she wanted to be, Joker's bedroom. _No one else could live in so much madness._ Hearing footsteps in the hall she headed for a second door that led to a small walk-in closet. Random bits of clothing hung from the hangers and were piled on the floor. Chloe went in and crawled to the darkest corner of the closet, hiding herself behind the clothes. _Why the fuck is there a _female_ nurse uniform in here?!_ The mental image of Joker in the white dress brought a fit of hysterical giggles bubbling up her throat. _Nurse Joker!_ Chloe covered her mouth with her hands as she heard the door to the bedroom open and close. The giggles died and she couldn't decide what was louder, her heart beat in her ears or the footsteps in the room. The closet door slowly opened and Chloe held her breath, trying so desperately not to make a sound. The clothes blocking her were pushed aside and Joker was standing there, starring down at her. She made an attempt for the open door, diving past Joker, but he dove after her and managed to get a hold of her ankle, stopping her halfway out of the closet. Chloe kicked back with her other foot, landing a solid blow on his chest, and just barely wiggled free of his grasp. She crawled the 

rest of the way out of the closet before getting up and making a mad dash for the door. Her fingertips just brushed the doorknob when a strong arm wrapped around her waist and threw her back towards the middle of the room screaming. She landed on his bed, bouncing slightly before rolling off the mattress and onto the floor. Chloe tried to scramble under the bed but Joker got to her first, flipping her onto her back and pinning her to the floor. He straddled her waist and reached for her arms as Chloe tried to claw at his face and neck. He pinned her arms above her head, both her wrists in one hand, and started undoing his belt with the other. "Get off me you sick fuck!"

Joker growled and slapped her across the face before removing his belt and using it to tie her wrists to the bottom of the nearest bedpost. He sat back, panting slightly, enjoying the feel of her struggles beneath him. "Now, now Chloe. As much as I'd love for us to take the next step in our relationship, this," he pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket and released the spring loaded blade, "is about punishment."

The blade sliced through the front of her shirt, the skin beneath surprising Joker. He'd expected smooth unblemished skin the same creamy shade her legs had been when she wore that skirt to the club, but Chloe's torso was an odd collection of scars. Some were obviously years and years old, faded little marks on her skin, while others were relatively new. He traced a thick ropey scar that trailed along her sternum and under the pinstriped bra, before moving to a bite mark on her left side just below her ribs. His eyes skittered up to her face to find she wasn't ashamed, scared, or even angry, just bored. "Make your mark like everyone else and I'll cry about it later. Just hurry it up will you, my hands are going numb."

Joker giggled before moving lower on her body so he was sitting atop her thighs and unbuttoned her jeans, yanking them roughly till they were off her hips. The skin just above the top of her panties was smooth, unmarked, perfect. He looked up at her one more time, finding her staring right back at him, before slicing into the creamy skin. Chloe hissed and whimpered through the pain, but never screamed out while he carved. He finished and tore off a piece of her ruined shirt, wiping some of the blood off her skin to admire his work. "There I think that will do nicely."

Chloe looked down to see the word 'Joker's' carved into her skin. "You're an ass you know that." She mumbled sleepily as the adrenalin in her system drained from her body and the lack of food and water started catching up with her. She passed out with that obnoxious, annoying, and horrible laugh of his ringing in her ears.

When Chloe woke, she was still in his room, now on the bed instead of the floor. Joker was nowhere to be seen._ Probably back out tormenting Gotham._ The room really was as chaotic as he was. Newspaper clippings, pictures cut out from magazines, and random photographs of people and populated areas of Gotham littered the floor, some of the people in the pictures had Joker's trademark grin drawn on their faces with red marker. The dark grey plaster walls were riddled with gouges and slashes, victims of Joker's frustrations or boredom. A rickety desk was against one wall, its surface riddled with gouges as well, building blueprints scattered along its top and poking out of drawers. There was another door on the same wall as the closet, presumably a bathroom. The bed was in the middle of the room, nothing more than a filthy mattress atop an old iron frame with a few blankets but no pillows. Directly in front of the bed was an old TV. _He probably just _loves_ watching his videos air on the news._ Chloe curled up on her side, wincing at the sharp pain in her lower abdomen, and closed her eyes, wanting so badly to just go back to sleep. _Or fall in a coma. Coma definitely works!_ She pulled the blanket up over her head, 

noticing that Joker's bed smelt, oddly, of chalk dust. Chloe reached down to scratch an itch on her leg when she realized her jeans were gone. She was in the room of a deranged serial killer in only her bra and panties. _Wonderful, can I kill myself now._ Chloe groaned and wondered if she could fall into a coma just by thinking about it. Her vain attempts were cut off by the door opening and someone, most likely the Clown Prince himself, walking over and sitting down on the bed. He poked her in the stomach, "Wakey, wakey Chloe-kitty!"

Chloe rolled over mumbling, "Piss off Pennywise."

"Now don't be rude. First off, I don't eat children. And secondly, I was nice enough to give you a nice warm bed, _my_ nice warm bed. I could have just dumped you back in your little room and you would have frozen to death without your clothes."

"You could have just given me another shirt. And what the hell was wrong with my pants?!"

"They were dirty."

"You made them dirty. I want my clothes back! Or at least my pants and an new shirt"

"You can't have your clothes back, I burned them." Joker stated simply.

"You what!?" Chloe sat up, the blanket pooling around her waist. "What the hell did you do that for?"

Joker just shrugged, staring intently at the scars covering her torso. Chloe realized what he was staring at and moved to cover herself up but Joker snatched the blanket from her grasp and threw it to the floor. She tried to get it back, but found herself pulled into Joker's lap as he leaned against the headboard of the bed. Chloe lay more than sat in his lap as he traced her scars with his fingers again. "Tell me how you got these scars."

"Each one has a different story and there too many for me to tell. Pick one and I'll tell you." Joker's finger stopped on the one on her sternum. Chloe hissed out between clenched teeth, "Pick another one!" He giggled softly before moving to the bite mark below her ribs. "About two years ago I had class with this guy, Frankie; you're typical loner goth dude who hated about ninety-nine percent of the student population at school. We were taking a European History class together and we had this huge project to do with a partner for like most of semester grade and me being the nice girl that I am, I asked him to be my partner. To make a very long story slightly less long, by the time we turned the project in he thought we were dating and I had a stalker. So, really, you are nothing new to me. Anyway, back to the bite mark. So now it's the beginning of the spring semester and Frankie's showing up everywhere, home work, outside my classes, my bedroom late at night. Well I finally get it through to him that I'm not interested and suddenly my life becomes _Fatal Attraction_ without the hot elevator sex. I mean I call the cops and everything but still this guy keeps sending me his lovely little presents, which were nowhere near as nice as your roses but just as annoying. So one deliciously dark and stormy night he sneaks into my apartment, cuts off the power and phone lines to the whole fucking building and everything. And we go through the whole chasing and stuff till he's got me trapped in my bedroom and proceeds with the attempted rape, giving me this lovely little love-bite in the process."

"Attempted?" Joker snorted, he'd been giggling through most of the story while still unconsciously tracing her scars.

"He got damn close to the actual thing, but friend Johnny was coming over to sit with me and showed up just in time to be my hero. And I annoyed him for a month afterwards by refusing to 

refer to him as anything but 'My Hero.' So Frankie gets carted off by the police and is now getting the help he needs."

"You are just always getting yourself into trouble, aren't you Chloe-kitty?"

"Call me that again and I'll strangle you with your own intestines."

Joker threw his head back and laughed. Chloe snorted in disgust before lying completely across his lap and just staring up at the watermark stained ceiling. Joker's fingers moved from the scars to the now beginning to fade bruises left on her body from the day he kidnapped her. She had bruises on her sides and stomach from his kicks and punches, there were handprints on her shoulders from him grabbing her and fingerprints on her neck from being strangled. His hand drifted up to her cheek where a dark bruise was forming. Chloe closed her eyes and tried her best not to flinch away from his touch. "Now, now my little Chloe-kitty, I'm not going to hurt you. You're being such a good little girl."

"Does that mean I can have new clothes?" Chloe asked sweetly, "Please?"

Joker laughed at her, "Rage and hatred suit you more than innocence, but I suppose so. Can't have those lunatics out there getting ideas about my little kitten." He waved his arm in the direction of the closet. "Pick out something you like that fits."

"Yeah because _they're_ the lunatics I have to worry about." Chloe mumbled getting off his lap and the bed and going to the closet. She searched for the cleanest, smallest clothes she could find, completely ignoring the nurse uniform that threatened to send her into a fit of giggles again. She found a pair of grey, or were they a faded black, slacks that wouldn't be too baggy. Slipping them on, she called out the door, "Hey, can I ask you a few things?"

"Is it about my scars?" Joker sounded slightly hopeful.

"I really hate to break it to you, but I really don't want to know how you got your scars. Can I ask you something else?" Chloe started digging for a shirt.

"Oh fine. What is it?"

"Why do you have a woman's nurse uniform in here?"

"Kinky sex."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

"Fine, but I'm still going to think of you as Nurse Joker."

"Why don't you wear that? We can role play!"

"No such luck clown." Chloe walked out buttoning up a light blue dress shirt. "And why do you keep calling me kitty and kitten? It's annoying; I'm not a pet you know."

"You make little cat noises when you sleep."

"I do not!" Chloe sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall next to the closet. Joker smirked at her and patted the mattress next to him; Chloe just shook her head and stayed where she was. "I've had my daily dose of Joker closeness, anymore and I'll get my own padded room in Arkham."

Joker got up and walked over to her, grabbing her arm roughly and dragging her up. "I thought we were past this Chloe, you were being such a good pet."

"I'm not your pet."

Joker slammed her back into the wall, but his expression was almost bored. "You are what I want you to be Chloe. You are mine. I don't enjoy punishing you; I don't enjoy causing you pain." Chloe gave him a skeptical look. "Well not completely anyway. But as pretty as you are all black and blue, you're even prettier without your lovely bruises. If you want to be stubborn and disobedient, I'll just take _my_ clothes back and lock you in your little room again." His voice grew more into a growl with each word, his anger coming to the surface. "And you can see how much longer you can go without food until you're clawing at that door begging me for forgiveness."

"I-I want to stay." Chloe stuttered, her survival instinct beating out her hatred towards Joker. "I'll behave."

"Good!" Joker Stepped back and started going towards the door. "Now let's see what we can do about getting you some food." Chloe started to follow but Joker closed and locked the door behind him, leaving her trapped in a new cell.


	5. Chapter 5

A few days passed and Chloe found herself growing oddly accustomed to life with Joker. He would be gone by the time she woke up in the mornings, a tray of fruit left for her on the desk for breakfast. There would always be a note with the food, reminding her not to leave the room and to be a 'good little kitten.' _Like I could really leave the room, bastard leaves the door locked whenever he leaves._ Joker's door had a weird, and probably custom made, lock on it. It was a deadbolt that, instead of a knob on one side and keyhole on the other, had a keyhole on both sides. And only Joker had the key. Chloe would spend the morning watching TV or reading what she could of the newspaper clippings that scattered the floor. Around noon Mumbles, who was now missing an ear, would show up with a sandwich for lunch. Chloe tried talking to the man once but he was either under orders not to talk to her or just wouldn't. After he left, she'd go back to whatever she was doing, clinging to her last few hours of peaceful boredom until Joker returned. Today Chloe had decided to make full use of her bathroom privileges, hoping to squeeze in a bath before Joker got home. _Great I've started thinking of this place at home. This place is not home, home is where I can go in more than one room. It's a place where I'm not a prisoner._ The bathroom was small, a toilet, a sink, and a bathtub. Everything in it seemed old, the bathtub didn't even have a shower head it was just the tub. As relaxing as a nice hot soak was, the impending arrival of the clown took any relaxation out of the soak. Add to the fact that she wasn't allowed to lock the door (she had the first time she'd bathed which had resulted in a new set of bruises). Chloe sighed getting out of the tub and drying off, right as she was slipping on her shirt, _his_ shirt, she heard the door open. She rubbed at her hair with the towel, grimacing at the fading color in her hair, the once medium blue was becoming a blue/green and her ice blond roots were beginning to show. The bathroom door open right has she hung the towel up on its hook and Joker stood in the doorway, obviously disappointed he didn't catch her naked. Chloe 

just shoved past him, turned on the TV and flopped down on the bed, still drying her hair. Joker came and sat down next to her, grabbing the remote and changing the channel. "There's an interesting little debate going on, on GNN tonight Chloe. You might be interested."

"I'm not but you'll just make me watch it anyway." It was being hosted by the reporter Mike Engle that Joker had kidnapped from the hospital back during his first crime spree. The two guest/debaters were other well known reporters from Gotham; Richard Winthrop, a conservative editor for a business magazine, and Helen Grey the radical star reporter from _The Gotham Daily Report_.

"Tonight we're discussing what has become a recent media controversy here in Gotham," Engle said. "We're discussing the recent kidnapping of Chloe Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner, Jim Gordon. As I'm sure all of you know, in the week since the terrorist known as The Joker took Miss Gordon, her family and friends, including billionaire Bruce Wayne, have sent out messages to the Joker through the media pleading for her safe return. But since some unsavory incidents in Miss Gordon's past have come public, there has been some speculation as to whether or not this was really a kidnapping."

"What the fuck!?"

"Quiet down Chloe, I'm trying to watch this." Joker wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Chloe is being held by the Joker against her will." Helen started. "We all saw the way she looked in the video, she was starved and beaten. No woman would willingly throw herself into that situation."

"But there is evidence that Chloe went to the Joker of her own will that day. The security camera shows her leaving her from the garage on her bike and three traffic cameras snapped pictures of her running red lights to get to the meeting spot. That girl put herself in that position." Richard scoffed.

"Only because Joker was threatening to blow up an elementary school. We should be praising Chloe for her nobility and sacrifice not thinking or her as a criminal!"

"That girl is a criminal! Look at her record; underage drinking, fighting, shoplifting-"

"All of us made mistakes as teens. And like you never got drunk at a party in high school!"

"What about the fact that she was the prime suspect for the fire that took down the entire science wing of Lower Gotham High in 2000? Arson is not a crime you can pass off as teenage stupidity. That girl has a history of being rebellious; her father's the police commissioner, being with the Joker is the ultimate rebellion."

" Let me get this straight, you think she put herself in a situation where she is being beaten, starved, tortured and possibly raped to rebel against her father?! Do you even hear what you're saying? Someone would have to be crazy to do something like that!"

"I have evidence," Richard pulled some papers out of a briefcase he had with him, "right here that the _innocent_ Miss Gordon spent eighteen months inside Arkham Asylum from the ages of eight to nine. Now tell me, Miss Grey, what sane person spends more of a year of their childhood in an asylum?"

Chloe jumped off the bed and turned off the TV. She paced in front of the bed, pulling at her hair in rage. "How the fuck did he find that out, those records are fucking sealed! That little 

muckraking bastard, I'll kill him. I will fucking cut off all of his limbs while he's still alive and make him scream!"

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're really cute when you're homicidal?"

"Don't even fucking start with me clown, this is all your fault anyway!"

"My fault?! How is it my fault you cause so much trouble when you were younger?" Joker said in mock offense. "And burning down a school, I knew there was something about you."

"It wasn't a whole school just part of it. And it's your fault because if you hadn't kidnapped me, that fat prick would have dug into my background. Now they'll think I'm a freak like you!"

"You're hair color changes every week, I think they were already suspicious."

"God damn it Joker this isn't a fucking joke. I could fucking care less what they think about my hair or even the shit I pulled as a teen; it's the fact that that fucking cock sucking, shit eating, fat ass, piece of shit Winthrop told the fucking world I was in Arkham!"

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. So what did you do to land yourself in Arkham at that age?"

"None of your fucking business, that's what!" Chloe screamed at him. Her face was bright red with rage and she really did look like she was about to kill someone. Joker smirked, he liked this side of Chloe. He grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto his lap and began stroking her hair.

"Awe, come on little Chloe. I want to know. And besides all those repressed emotions are going to drive you crazy one day."

"I am crazy." Chloe snorted. "I have the fucked up childhood to prove it."

"So this _does_ have something to do with Mommy dearest. I thought so."

"Of course it does. Everything goes back to her. Her and her fucking problems."

"Just tell me Chloe, you know you want to."

"No I don't. But you'll either annoy me or beat me until I do. So sit back, relax, and enjoy another little trip into the fucking soap opera that is my life." Chloe spat out sarcastically climbing off Joker's lap and beginning to pace again. "When I was two, my parents divorced, mom couldn't handle being married to a cop. Mom got custody of me 'cause Dad was just a beat cop at the time, the hours were too erratic for him to take care of a child. She always wanted to be an actress and by the time I was three, she was becoming pretty popular on the stage. Then she started getting bad reviews and the parts got smaller and smaller till no one would cast her anymore. She ended up juggling three minimum wage jobs and being a single mom and somewhere in the midst of it all she ended up hooked on drugs. When I was four she moved up in with her boyfriend, a small time dealer who had a habit of sneaking into my room after mom passed out. Mom found out when I was five and by this time she was so far gone she didn't really know how to handle it. Somehow she got it into her mind, that the abuse was my fault; that I was trying to steal him away from her. So one morning after he left to do whatever it was that he did, she came into my room with a steak knife. She lifted up my shirt and said 'You're a dirty girl, I've got to make you clean again' and makes a cut right on my rib. I screamed and she slapped me, I never screamed after that. And so life went on, he kept sneaking into my room and she kept making me clean. No one at school noticed, I didn't want them to. Then when I was eight, Dad married Barbra and they started making use of his visitation rights. One day the 

school calls Barbra and tells her I'm behind on my required shots and checkups, so she makes an appointment with a doctor."

"And then the world went to hell." Joker interjected.

"Like you wouldn't fucking believe. I freaked out when the doctor told me to take off my clothes, then when they finally convinced me it was okay, they get to see all my lovely little scars. Which led to a full on examination and they found out the extent of the abuse. They arrested Mom's boyfriend, thinking he did all of it and my mom was completely unaware of the abuse. So when they send me back to her, thinking I'm safe, Mom just snapped. She came out of the kitchen with a big knife and that's all I remember. The next thing I can remember is sitting on the living room floor covered in blood, screaming my head off. Mom was dead, stabbed right through the heart. A neighbor heard my screams and called the cops, they found her with the knife sticking out of her chest and me just sitting there screaming. They didn't know if I had killed her or if she had tried to kill me and ended up committing suicide instead. They didn't want to know. They sent me to a hospital to get stitched up and then off to Arkham." Joker stared at Chloe, never once during her story did she seem sad or ashamed, just agitated. He stood up and smiled, holding his arms out like wanted to hug her.

"Look at you my little baby killer!"

"Don't call me that! I don't know if I killed her, I don't want to know! I'm completely happy not knowing. And I'm happy with the world not knowing. If Winthrop found out I was in Arkham you can bet he's digging to find out why. I'm not a killer and I sure as fuck don't want to be labeled as one!"

"Don't worry kitten, I'll take care of that." Joker said pulling her against him. "Now, a few more questions-"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore Joker."

"A few more questions," Joker continued his voice getting a little rough, "and then you don't have to talk about it anymore. I promise."

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"What happened to the dealer?"

"He was convicted, sent to prison." An evil smirk slipped onto Chloe's face, "You know what they do to pedophiles is prison don't you? They're bottom of the barrel, scum of the scum, hell even serial killers don't like them. And I was a cop's kid, so the guards tended to turn a blind eye. Well one day a riot breaks out in the yard and by the time the guards break it up, the dealer's lying on the ground with his neck broken."

"He got off too easy, pet. Now, for a girl who was molested for most of her early childhood, you seem a little too well adjusted."

"I spent a year and a half in Arkham with round the clock therapy sessions, I pretty much had to deal with it and get over it. And I still walked out with what they called anger issues. That and hearing how the bastard was treated by his fellow convicts never hurt."

"Good enough, last question and then you're done for the night. These little 'anger issues', they explain the arson, the drinking, the fighting; they explain all your little 'acting out' as Miss Grey would call it. But nothing explains why it stopped. With all that information, you should be a female version of me."

"And I would have been. But something happened to me that changed my life, made me reevaluate the path I was heading down. I cleaned up my act, got good marks in high school and then got the hell out of doge. To tell you the truth, I hate this city and if it hadn't been for my family, I never would have come back."

"What happened?"

"Nope." Chloe pulled herself out of his embrace and sat back down on the bed turning the TV back on and finding a random movie to watch. "You already asked the last question for the night. I'm done. Besides, that's something that can destroy more than my life."

Joker was curious, almost painfully so. He was really beginning to see the potential in his Chloe. She was just like Dent, she just needed a little push, but unlike Dent, he doubted she could be taken away from the game so easily. Joker knew if he pushed more tonight it would be harder to twist Chloe to his own design, so he let it drop and headed for the bathroom, leaving Chloe to her movie. Chloe was in luck, she'd found some kids' channel playing _Warriors of Virtue_, and had tuned in at the part where Komodo, the villain, was laying in that awesome bed of his that hung from the ceiling and explaining to General Grillo why they couldn't destroy the manuscript. Her favorite line was coming up; just a Grillo turned to leave Komodo pulled him back and asked 'Does purple suit me?' Chloe burst out laughing. _Komodo, Joker's long lost brother! They're definitely crazy enough to be related_. Chloe lay back on the bed, pulling the covers over her, and fell asleep to the sounds of the movie. Joker came out of the bathroom, clad only in his trademark purple pants, his makeup wearing off. He never actually took his makeup off, just redid it every morning. Besides a lot of it rubbed off on the bed in his sleep. He found Chloe already asleep in the bed and a strange movie on TV. Three giant talking kangaroos were 

chained in midair while some guy walked beneath them, obviously taunting them. The man yelled at random intervals; Joker giggled as he turned the TV off, he liked the guy. He crawled into bed next to Chloe, wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her to him like he always did. He liked the way Chloe felt against him, she had joked the first night that she was really nothing more than a breath teddy bear to him. He liked that too, that she joked with him, that she was sarcastic. That she picked fights, even if she knew he'd just beat her. _It'll be a shame to break her._

Chloe woke the next morning to find Joker sitting at the foot of the bed watching TV. "Wow, that's a change, you're actually here for once." He didn't say anything, or even acknowledged that she'd spoken, just kept on watching TV. Chloe frowned, Joker was anything but the silent type. She'd even woken up once at night hearing him giggle in his sleep. She sat up and crawled up behind him. "Yo Pennywise, spit out the kid you're eating and talk." Nothing. "Earth to Nurse Joker!" Chloe got frustrated, she couldn't stand it when someone pretended she wasn't there. She looked to the TV seeing the news was on but the sound was on mute, she snatched the remote from Joker's hand and pressed the mute button the sound returning in the middle of the female reporters sentence.

"-heard a commotion early this morning, but dismissed it as nothing important. When Richard Winthrop failed to show up for work at six like he always did, a coworker came here, to his home, to investigate. The man found the door unlocked and walked inside to a bloodbath. In the living room was Winthrop, his arms and legs removed from his body. The coworker's screams alerted neighbors who called the police. Ah," The reporter was outside a house that was surrounded by crime scene tape and police vans. "Here is Commissioner Gordon now. Commissioner, a few questions." Jim came on the screen. He looked tired and ragged, Chloe 

knew he'd barely slept all week. "Does this have any connection to Winthrop's appearance on GNN last night? Is the Joker involved?"

"It would appear that due to certain evidence, this is a Joker related crime. But I highly doubt it had anything to do with Winthrop's appearance or remarks last night." Joker snatched back the remote and shut off the TV. Chloe turned and really looked at him for the first time; he wasn't wearing one of his custom suits, but one of the older ones from the floor of the closet. _He didn't want to get one of the expensive ones dirty_. Joker's front was completely drenched in blood, there were even splatters on his neck and face. Chloe jumped away from him, backing off the bed and as far away from Joker as she could get.

"You killed him."

"Just the way you wanted." Joker got up and followed her. Chloe literally backed herself up into a corner and Joker just kept advancing. "I told you I'd take care of it Chloe."

"I didn't tell you to kill him!" Joker trapped her in the corner, his hands on the walls on either side of her head. His body was so close, not quite touching hers. Chloe tried to press herself more into the corner.

"But you wanted him dead." His face was so close to hers.

"I was angry, I didn't really mean it."

"But you wanted it." His lips were so close. "And wanting is all it takes." His lips crashed against hers in a kiss that was as violent as he was, his tongue forcing its way into her mouth. One hand fisted in her hair, pulling her to him, the other had a death grip on her hip, keeping her there. Chloe pushed against his chest, pushing as hard as she could. He let her go and her head 

slammed back into the wall. Joker snickered, "I'm beginning to think I'm not the only masochist in this relationship."

Her punch caught him off guard; Joker stumbled back a step, rubbing his jaw. Chloe glared at him, the rage from the previous night returning full force. "What part of I hate you and want to rip you to shreds with a fucking chainsaw don't you get clown?"

"You just don't get it Chloe," Joker's voice was eerily calm, "You are so annoyingly stuck in that righteous and noble little world of yours. You hate me, because you think you have to."

"I hate you because you're an evil, sadistic, pathetic excuse for a person!" Joker grabbed her and threw her back towards the bed. Her back cracked painfully when it impacted with the headboard. Chloe fell to the floor, hissing at the pain.

Joker walked over to her, still as calm as ever. "You are just so stubborn, and so stuck in all their lies. That man, he would have destroyed what small little happy life you and your family had by letting the world know just who you really are. And you know what Daddy dearest could have done? Absolutely nothing. The idea would be planted in their heads and someone would have eventually found out your lovely little secret. And look at what I did. Now, they will be too afraid to dig deeper."

"You killed an innocent man." Chloe said slowly pulling herself into a sitting position. Joker grabbed the color of her shirt and pulled her up. Chloe winced in pain and leaned back against the headboard.

"No one's innocent anymore. Take you for instance, you try to act like a sweet innocent girl, the girl you want to be. And deep down inside, you are just like me. Evil, sadistic, a freak, a killer. 

And what hurts the most, is that you know it's true. And no matter how hard you don't want to believe it, no matter how hard you want to fight it, it will always be true." Joker had her pinned again.

Chloe looked up at him through her faded hair. Her clothes were now covered in blood, stained by his. "I'm not like you, no matter how much you want me to be."

He brushed the hair out of her face and shook his head sadly. "Believe what you want to. Look at you," His voice changed from pitiful, to condescendingly cheerful, "barely ten minutes out of bed and my kitten's already a mess. You need a bath." He dragged her over to the bathroom and pushed her in, closing the door behind her. Chloe just starred at the door.

"Fucking bi-polar clown!"


End file.
